Vietnam / kent state , protest

Tet and the impact of events in Vietnam

• LBJ had committed us ground troops to the conflict between the South Vietnamese.

• The use depended on compulsory military services (known as the draft)

• By the end of 1968, troop levels reached over five hundred thousand in Vietnam, a nd thousands of Americans had died.

During the Tet holiday in January 1968

• Vietnamese communists launched their great Tet Offensive on South Vietnam.

• Feb 1969, Vietnamese communists launched the Tet Offensive, attacking all major cities in Vietnam.

• Convinced many Americans that the war could not be won.

• Daily television footage of US planes bombing Vietnam and troops setting fire to Vietnamese villages also alienated many.

• For the first time, ordinary Americans were able to watch what was happening in a foreign war, and this intensified domestic opposition..

• College protesters fear the draft and dislike military US tactics.

Assassinations, king, and Kennedy

• MLK's assassination provoked major black riots in one hundred cities, in which forty died, three thousand were injured, and 27000 were arrested.

• $45 million worth of property was damaged.

• The silent majority was tired of black rioting and feared that America had become a divided country in which political dialogue had been replaced by acts of violence.

The democratic national convention, Chicago

• The MOBE and the Youth International Party called on young people to come to Chicago to demonstrate contempt for the American political process by disrupting this convention.

• Around three thousand members threatened police that they would lace the city’s water supply with LSD.

•    Mayor Daily mobilised around 12000 police and banned marches.

• The media revealed students having sex in public, urinating at police, and police retaliated with clubs and gas.

• Polls recorded 56% approval of police action against the protester.

• Caused many voters to support the presidential candidate for law and order in 1968, republican Richard Nixon

Student radicals and violence

• Student radicals became more militant and violent.

• 1969-70, there were two thousand bombings or attempted bombings, 56% by students and 19% by Black extremists. A

• radical student blew up the University of Colorado buildings.

• Kent State students demanded admission of more Black students and the abolition of the ROTC.

The impact of events in Vietnam and Kent state university, Ohio

• Antiwar protests continued because even as he withdrew troops from South Vietnam, he increased the bombing.

• Many Americans disliked the protestors, as 84% thought student protestors and Black militants were treated too leniently.

• Anti-war protests erupted in over 80% of American universities.

•   4^th May 1970 Nixon; to stop the war, Nixon ordered the invasion of Cambodia and needed an additional 150,000 extra us troops.

• Led a major student demonstration at Kent State University, the governor sending nine hundred members of the Ohio National Guard.

• Firebombed the ROTC (reserve officer training corps), some held a peaceful protest rally.

• Almost five hundred colleges were shut down.

• Sem felt the government were deliberately murdering protesters.

• Middle Americans agreed with Nixon’s criticism, and over half of Americans blamed the students for what happened at Kent State

• Although Nixon promised peace, US military involvement continued until January 1973

The end of protests

• Nixon hated protestors and decreased their numbers by depriving radical students of federal scholarships and loans.

• Adjusted the drafts so fewer students felt threatened.

• Began dying out by 1971.

The democratic national convention 1972

• Some young delegates expressed support for the communist cause in Vietnam and nominated communist China leader Mao Zedong and a democratic party candidate.

• George McGovern was to be the candidate of the counterculture – he wanted to legalise marijuana and abortions, give $1000 to every American to decrease poverty.